I thought this seemed an appropriate theme for the last thought of 30 Days Wild. It’s the view from my window. On a clear evening I am blessed with some amazing views. I love the colour of the sky & the cloud formation. Trees provide ideal silhouettes.

My camera allows me many shots, attempts to capture the perfect image. It’s moments like this I am tempted to try my hand at painting, but somehow I don’t feel I would achieve an exact copy.

Sometimes it’s not possible to take a walk, visit wild places, there is no choice but to remain indoors. Here I am able to spend time gazing at my garden, observing the plants & wild life, or take a look at my view which is ever changing through the seasons.

So tonight I have spent time, drinking in the beauty of the night sky & all it encompasses.

It’s almost the end of 30 Days Wild & I’m feeling chuffed that I have managed to write something each day. It may not always be a fresh topic, but I hope I’ve achieved a new angle.

Today’s image is really from a few days ago. It was a nice evening, the sky blue with swirls & drifts of clouds. The trails of cloud drawn across the sky as an artist paints a picture.  It all seems quite random, wild if you like. The bird silhouette adds to the theme. It’s a seagull, one of the many around our city. They have learnt that cities are now a great source of food & have adapted their lifestyles.

June has been memorable –  dull, gloomy days with sudden heavy bursts of rain & thunderstorms. Clouds have loomed continuously. Gardeners  dismayed by the spoilt blooms, roses hanging their heads heavy with moisture. Lawns have grown quickly, thick & lush, but there is little opportunity, with clouds threatening to break, to keep them well manicured. Slugs & snails have been partying – while gardeners wage war against them.

I decided to invest in a weekly garden magazine this month. From this I learnt caterpillars also need certain plants to exist – some are quite picky in the leaves they eat to survive! In contrast the whole publication was dotted with advice on how to eradicate pests –  use of insecticides strongly promoted. I’m not going to sit in judgement but it does seem we want the best of both worlds. I want butterflies & bees in my garden, but not slugs & vine weevil.

Looking back over the last weeks, my posts have featured gardens, but I’ve also taken a walk by the river & best of all – discovered the most magnificent meadow. This Saturday is  National meadow day a chance to celebrate & explore. It’s a great idea to promote meadows to all ages, but I will visit when it’s quieter, & have the opportunity to savour the moment without the bustle of people around me. I loved the freedom of my meadow visit – most of the time just me, my companion & the beauty of the meadow. Perfect.

I have had an amazing time – a walk of discovery. It’s made me thirsty to learn more about many things – flowers both wild & cultivated, the link between the two; butterflies & moths – to understand the flowers they need to survive & to recognise a few by name!

Soon we will move into a new month – perhaps we shall be blessed with sunshine!

One of the best buys I made for my garden was a bird bath. It has given extraordinary pleasure to me in watching the antics of birds that drop by my garden, but most of all it has been a place of refreshment for my feathered friends.

It is a joy to watch the bathing ritual of birds – blackbirds are my favourites. I caught this one splashing just as he was about to leave the garden. You can see how soggy he became!

Sometimes if the bath is very full, smaller birds find it too deep. Watching a wren trying to bathe, it simply disappears from my view! I keep a shallow plant saucer of water below the bath as an alternative. This can provide hilarious entertainment as birds try to splash around in the shallow water. But it is used, so I continue to maintain it & freshen the water.

While out today I watched a family of sparrows having fun taking a bath – a dust bath! The chirping of these little birds first caught my attention, then I could see them along a rough un-adopted road. The family seemed to take it in turns to freshen their feathers. Alongside the road is an old hedge – hence the attraction to the sparrows. It made me think how few sparrows we now see – hedges around my neighbourhood have sadly disappeared, many in favour of wooden fence panels. I guess this is simply a choice of practicality & less maintenance. How I mourn the loss of hedges that were rich sources of food & shelter for wildlife. Now a run of wooden fence panels stand, stark, bare, simply providing a climb frame for squirrels or resting perch for birds. But they tend not to come, there is no purpose in their dropping by.

Okay the bird in this photo isn’t bathing, but he is adorable! Do you recognise him? It’s a young robin. Now I did have a shot of him facing the camera & no he’s not got his red chest as yet, but from this angle you can see the colour of his feathers more clearly. His tail & wings brown, his back & top of his head mottled brown – the colour of his juvenile plumage. His stance gave away his species – he posed in typical robin fashion & jumped round from his vantage spot to see us. I think he looks gorgeous.

But had I not stopped to look closely round the garden I would have failed to spot him. I think he looks perfect perched on the edge of this pot & the houseleeks growing here seem to compliment the picture.

It’s relatively easy to take photographs of flowers, sometimes it can be a little too bright & the colours don’t appear true, sometimes it’s too breezy & the flower you thought was in focus is a blur! But there’s usually a good chance of getting one decent shot.

Birds, bees & butterflies…. now they present quite a challenge! The meadow was buzzing with bees & there were a few butterflies. These led me a merry dance! Anyone watching my antics while desperately trying to take a photo would have been highly entertained. It seemed just walking alongside the grassy path disturbed the butterflies – suddenly they would pop into view then dip once more into the mass of flowers.

I felt childishly pleased with myself for actually spotting a butterfly at rest & then managing to focus in quickly enough with the camera! I also have lots of shots where I just missed the opportunity or didn’t quite focus on the exact flower.

Butterflies like ox eye daises it seems – well this one certainly did.

After a while I got accustomed to seeing butterflies suddenly rise from the flowers around me & dance around. Some perched on the path – just ahead of me & I became a little concerned that I may accidentally tread on one. But on my approach it rose & danced ahead once more. The joy of this delicate creature was infectious – it seemed to rejoice in its surroundings – enticing us to share the beauty of the meadow as it dance & fluttered around us.

I love spotting quirky, unusual things – so the next picture was something special. I’d seen a small yellow butterfly disappear into the flowers. The photo isn’t especially clear but I’m pleased with the result…

Having done a little research I think this is a moth. Moths may not be so popular as their butterfly relations, but some are very pretty & they tend to have lovely names. I think this is a yellow shell moth – the name fits its appearance! From my picture it doesn’t have that delicate look,, instead the wings look hard – you can just see wavy lines across the wing backs.

Butterfly ID This  link will take you to the Butterfly Conservation website. This is a great tool for butterfly & moth identification! I’ve personally bookmarked this to come back & visit in the future. There’s also the opportunity to join & support conservation. What a great idea!

My visit to the meadow brought many joys & as you will see many photos! These have given me the opportunity to savour once more the beauty of wild flowers & hopefully learn a little more about them, indeed set me on a trail of discovery.

This seed head may look very familiar – at first it appears to be a giant dandelion. Look again & you’ll see the shape is similar but it’s not a dandelion. It is however from the same family and has the lovely common name of Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon! It’s also known as Goat’s Beard.

Just to the left there’s another pod ready to unfold. I could simply stand & observe the beauty of this plant – it is so perfect, a real intrigue of nature. Each plant so different with ingenious ways of dispersing seeds to ensure more flowers will grow in the future. I’ve been fortunate to find a good array of wild flowers & with the benefit of a zoom lens take photos. Drawing & sketching may be fun, but far more time consuming. Also if a flower wasn’t close by the path the camera can bring it closer & hopefully, nicely into focus!

Away from the meadow, now to  another plant that is setting seed. I couldn’t resist sharing this quirky plant. The brown tufts  look unusual & feel much the same. I guess the green pods belong to this plant & it is setting seed. It remains a mystery to me. But having found the seed head above to me there are similarities. The brown top in the next image was coarse, but the pods bear a striking resemblance. Roses grow here & dotted around  are several flower pods, so this is not a wild flower, but it is interesting to see the relationship between wild & garden.

Would I grow it in my borders alongside roses as pictured here? No, it wouldn’t be my ideal choice! But there is something about this oddity, a strange charm. It was a plant that I returned to, wanted to learn about. Roses were easy to identify, but this one presents a challenge.

I visited the garden at a weekend, so the Head Gardener wasn’t working. Pity. I tried finding more from information sheets dotted around the grounds, but again there was nothing. Perhaps I shall save this mystery to investigate in the winter months – challenge myself to set time aside to learn more about plants – not just my favourites!

If you have followed my posts by now you will know that I have a passion for hardy geraniums. This one is a gorgeous blue shade. I chose this angle for my shot to show the seed head. Do you see the shape? That’s how the plant earned it’s common name – Cranes’ bill geranium.

This one looks much like a garden variety, but the grass is perhaps the clue to where I found it – a meadow. The startling blue is a lovely contrast to the grass surrounding the plant. You can see why gardeners were keen to create a garden variety – Johnson’s Blue comes to mind. I love the quote from my copy of Familiar Wild Flowers: “Where it [meadow cranes bill] occurs it can scarcely fail to command attention… from the beautiful colour of its blossoms and large clumps of richly cut leaves.” It’s interesting that the guide mentions the leaves. One compliments the other. The book is rather old – perhaps it is a more old fashioned view, but one we should adopt – seeing beauty in the leaves of plants.

I love the next flower for its quirky appearance!  This is Self heal Prunella vulgaris.  The plant earned its common name as it has a long history of medicinal use,  traditionally the leaves are applied to wounds to promote healing.

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/selfheal

Blue always seems to be the desirable colour when it comes to hybridising plants for the garden. While in the wild there are many…

It would be easy to walk by, the flower unseen, but I really enjoyed savouring each step through the meadow. It was an easy walk as a path had been cut through, at times it felt maze-like, surrounded by grasses & wild flowers – at one with nature. For me it was an amazing walk on the wild side, a true path of discovery. Artists could have a field day sitting, sketching, drawing these beautiful flowers. I am safer capturing the beauty on camera – it’s more accurate! But there is also something about taking time to craft a picture that encapsulates the moment.

Okay so this one isn’t blue, but it is gorgeous. I love the detail on the flowers. This has to be an orchid – right there in the meadow. Isn’t it beautiful?

Where do you think today’s picture was taken? Park maybe? Garden? This is National Trust land – devoted to creating a meadow. I wonder how you see this snapshot. Do you see the flowers, the splash of yellow brightness. Perhaps you think the grass needs cutting & it spoils the flowers. Hands up anyone who spotted the insect on the ox eye daisy!

I have wanted to visit this meadow for a while. This month & next is the optimum time as the meadow is mown late July. I think it is amazing & demonstrates what can be achieved in a field. It wasn’t a sunny day but the buzz of bees & numerous butterflies dancing by were testimony to the success of this area.

I am ashamed to say I recognise few wild flowers by name, but I love the diversity of plants growing happily here. It was tempting to pick a flower to bring home to identify, but I resisted & instead took countless photos to try & name the assorted flowers. I realise too grassed have many varieties – they are not all green! I confess I love those with red shades & they blend so well with the natural display of colour you see here.

Our local authority have decided to try & create small meadow areas across our city’s open spaces & parks. These are still in their infancy, but to my gardener’s eye they are not a success. In the park they look wild – unkept, neglected. A sign saying it’s for the benefit of butterflies doesn’t make it any better!

Open spaces near houses look even  worse. Here long grass can also attract other wildlife that is perhaps best deterred from residential areas. To me it is simply a cost cutting exercise. Our city boasts hanging basket displays for visitors to admire & enjoy, bedding displays continue to carpet our parks & a few major roundabouts. Rough areas of grass randomly situated in a park are not meadows. This amazing place I visited is a meadow – a joy to see & explore.

Today I’d like to take you along the riverside. Think for a moment of the setting, the water, stillness, quiet, maybe a family of ducks drifting by….

This is view is in our city centre, taken from a bridge on a commute from car park to supermarket. In the distance you can see buildings – these are part of a new development – by the riverside. What strikes me most about this view is how green it is! Trees line the riverside & in the water on the left of the picture you can just see something on the surface. From a distance it resembles water lilies. Now for me water lilies conjure up a picture of a beautiful pond in a managed garden. So perhaps not! But I found it interesting to discover something in the river other than the traditional supermarket trolley, that always seem to find a resting place here.

Perhaps it’s that I am of a certain age but the idea of a riverside home is not appealing to me! In a countryside setting it may sound idyllic, but in the heart of a city no, it’s not for me. Perhaps just as well looking  the price tag!! I can remember our river flooding in my childhood, swans seen swimming up the central streets…

I also recall tales of homes close to the river – these were not the most desirable of places. And those childhood stories, tales of the riverbank – remember ratty & his friends? They do not seem so cute & adorable to my adult self. Moving away from the river, up through the city streets you gradually came to the more affluent part. In many ways that element remains – the smarter shops are still to the north.

Okay so this is an unusual angle, mainly because I used my camera phone. But part of the challenge of 30 Days is to look at the world differently- so this is it! We’ve moved along the river, standing behind a famous bridge. You can see the reflection of riverside buildings. Again the riverbank is very green, growth is lush! Tourists, visitors to our city flock to see the city, the bridge lined with  shops. From the side I stood there is a very different view.

So far I’ve written my posts based on my own thoughts, wandering, observations. But today I decided to take inspiration from the Day 22 challenge of 30 Days Wild.: “Have a look at the world in a different way… look up at birds high above.” Great idea! So I thought I would do just that, walking round out city centre. Now in fairness I tend to watch my step – the pavements aren’t very even in places & well you  er… have to mind where you put your feet sometimes. I could hear birds calling, the unmistakable cry of seagulls!

No I do not live on or near the coast, yes I was in the city centre. Seagulls have made their home here. So I stop & look up… Now I did spot one on the rooftops, sat just to the right of the chimney stack beside a TV aerial, near the tree….

The seagull was too quick for me, perhaps because I was distracted by, well, the tree! Looking at the roof line along some of our older buildings there is a surprising array of greenery, looking quite at home.  No I do not think this counts as a roof garden. Interestingly many of the properties in my home city are listed buildings.  That means if the owners want to make any structural changes to the building  they need to request permission. Even if they wish to remove a tree from their garden, if it comes within a conservation part of the city they need to seek permission.

I do not know if this particular building falls into that category, but I guess the tree you can see on the roof line arrived courtesy of a bird on simply a seed blew in on a windy day!

Perhaps it’s because I am small in stature but I love looking for the minor detail! I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this flower bud. It is perfect. There is something about looking at this image that makes me want to reach out to touch the bud – is it soft, prickly, mossy… I love the brightness, the freshness. Look closely & you can just see a little colour edging the vibrant green shade.

It’s a rose, from my garden visit. I have come to the conclusion that I could never book to join an organised group garden tour. I like to take my time, wander at will. It is interesting that few people were taking photos the day of my garden visit. Perhaps they simply wanted to enjoy the atmosphere, sit & rest a while in the calm setting. For me one of the joys of being able to capture the moment is I can return to my photos & savour the view again. Like today – while I sit indoors there is the opportunity to revisit the garden in thought & perhaps spot something else in the corner of a photograph that I had missed at the time.